The UK is the seventh most expensive country to charge an electric vehicle (EV) in Europe, according to new research from Irish price comparison website Switcher.ie.
With an average cost of €0.22/kWh, the UK comes in at 32nd place, with Germany coming last at €0.30/kWh. For a full charge, the UK has an average cost of €13.77 compared to Germany’s €19.02.
Ukraine came in first place, with a cost of €0.05/kWh and a full charge cost of €2.91. It was followed by Kosovo (€0.06/kWh), Serbia (€0.07/kWh) and North Macedonia (€0.08/kWh).
To work out the average cost of charging an electric car across Europe, Switcher.ie calculated the cost per charge for 55 different electric cars based on the cost of electricity in each specific country using data from Eurostat covering the first half of 2020, and then took the average for each country.
However, the data did not take into consideration factors such as tariffs from energy suppliers offering cheaper or free charging at certain times of day.
In the UK, there are a number of these tariffs on offer, including one launched by Good Energy this month that allows free charging during certain periods of excess wind and solar generation.
Other examples include EDF’s zero carbon GoElectric 35 tariff, which offers an off-peak rate of 4.5p/kWh, a rate EDF claimed to be the cheapest on the market. This allows customers to fully charge a standard 40kW Nissan Leaf for £1.80, significantly lower than the average of €13.77 (£11.96) listed by Switcher.ie.
Additionally, tariffs such as ScottishPower’s SmartPower Green EV – launched in 2019 – allows a Nissan Leaf with a 40kWh battery and average annual mileage of around 6,000 miles to charge for just £62 a year.
